The present invention relates to improvements to suspension assemblies for vehicles.
Known assemblies used to attach suspension components to one another and to other components in heavy duty truck suspension systems can be expensive and make installation and removal of the suspension components rather difficult. For example, suspension components attach the axle beam to the vehicle frame. Typically, the suspension components have been attached to the axle beam using several individual brackets which increases the cost and complexity of the suspension system.
Another example is the attachment assemblies used to attach torsion assemblies to supports. One prior art device has used split bushes which are clamped around a portion of the torsion assembly. However, this design is susceptible to wear due to ingestion of foreign particles into the assembly. Other prior art devices often require the disassembly of many components to remove the torsion assembly from the supports.
Prior art attachment assemblies used to attach control rods to supporting structures have been relatively expensive. Pins having a cylindrical end and a tapered end have typically been used to connect the control rod to a supporting structure. The cylindrical end is press fit into the supporting structure and the tapered end is received in a complementary tapered opening in an end of the control rod. The tapered end also has a threaded feature that secures the pin to the control rod end. The threaded feature and press fit make the attachment assembly of the prior art more costly and difficult to assemble.